Background
Killgrew was born at Lothbury, London, the son of William Killigrew and his wife Margery (Mary) Saunders, daughter of Thomas Saunders of Uxbridge, Middlesex.
Killgrew was born at Lothbury, London, the son of William Killigrew and his wife Margery (Mary) Saunders, daughter of Thomas Saunders of Uxbridge, Middlesex.
Christ Church.
He served as Ambassador to the United Provinces. In January 1591, he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford at the age of 11. He travelled abroad in 1596 and may have become an official of the Privy Chamber in 1601.
He was elected Member of Parliament for Street Mawes in 1601.
Killigrew was knighted by King James I in 1603. In 1604 he was elected Member of Parliament for Newport.
lieutenant is possible that he travelled to Jamestown in 1604. His name appears in the Second Charter of Virginia as a backer.
In 1606 he was appointed ambassador to the United Provinces.
In June 1612, Killigrew was noted as "one of Carr"s favourites" according to John Chamberlain. The following May, he was committed to the Fleet Prison for an unknown offence. Having become famous for his concoctions of drugs and cordials, he was at first suspected of complicity in the death of Sir Thomas Overbury in September 1613, but was subsequently officially exonerated.
In 1614, Killigrew was elected Member of Parliament for Helston.
On 12 May that year, he was involved in an altercation in the House of Commons. In July, he was appointed Keeper of Pendennis Castle, Falmouth, and a Justice of the Peace that same year.
He is recorded as fighting a duel with Captain Burton in 1618. In October that year he was appointed an Officer of Protonotary of Chancery, and in December the following year was mentioned favourably by Buckingham.
In 1621 Killigrew was elected again Member of Parliament for Newport.
In 1622 he succeeded his father to become farmer of the profits from seals in King’s bench and common pleas which was worth at least £560 a year. He was elected Member of Parliament for Penryn and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for Cornwall in 1624. In 1625 he was elected Member of Parliament for Cornwall.
He was also appointed Ambassador to the United Provinces in September 1625, but this was not taken up by December that year.
In 1626, he was elected Member of Parliament for Tregony in 1626. In 1628 he was elected Member of Parliament for Bodmin and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.
He was appointed Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Henrietta Maria in 1630. Killigrew was a knight of Arwenack in Falmouth, Cornwall.
He died a wealthy man in 1633 in Bath, Somerset, with the probate of his will on 12 May.
William Killigrew (1606–1695)
Anne Killigrew (1607–1641)
Robert Killigrew (1611-1611???)
Thomas Killigrew (1612–1683)
Henry Killigrew (1613–1700)
Elizabeth Killigrew (c1615-c1619)
Catherine Killigrew (1618–1689), wife of Sir Thomas Stanley
Mary Killigrew (1623–1677), later wife of Sir John James, she has been confused in other biographies with Mary Sackville (1645–1679) (formerly Berkeley, née Bagot)--the widowed Countess of Falmouth—who was another mistress.
Useless Parliament; Happy Parliament. Addled Parliament; 2nd Parliament of King Charles I.
